The Double Pivot: Soccer analysis, analytics, and commentary The Cybernetics of Football with Dan Davies
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Apr 14, 2025 Dan Davies, author of The Unaccountability Machine, dives into the fascinating intersections of cybernetics, economics, and football. He explains how complex systems and accountability shape the sport and capitalism alike. The conversation highlights systemic issues in European football, using a metaphor involving squirrels to discuss accountability failures. Davies also tackles the challenge of translating elite football insights into coaching practices and unpacks the intricacies of club ownership, debt, and investment dynamics in the football industry.
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Squirrels at Schiphol
- KLM ground staff killed 440 squirrels at Schiphol Airport because of missing paperwork.
- This highlights how systems create decisions that no individual ultimately owns.
Organizations as Information Systems
- Modern organizations are information processing systems that create techniques to manage their information flow.
- Analyzing these systems and the principle of sufficient variety helps understand where systems break down.
Cybernetics
- Cybernetics, from the Greek "kubernetes" (helmsman), is about decision-making.
- It's a philosophical and mathematical system for understanding how systems function, including accountability sinks.
